Eugene G. Miller, author and professor of languages

Eugene G. Miller of Sanborn, an author and longtime professor of English and German, died Sunday in Our Lady of Peace Nursing Care Residence in Lewiston. He was 81.

Known as Gene, Mr. Miller was born in Madera, Pa. He attended high school and college classes taught by the Societas Verbi Divini, or Society of the Divine Word, a Catholic missionary order.

Mr. Miller served two years with the Army, stationed in Germany.

He earned a bachelor’s degree from Niagara University in 1956 and a master’s degree in education from the University at Buffalo in 1972. He began his career as a substitute teacher in the Niagara Wheatfield Central School District, before teaching German at Hobart College in Geneva and at UB.

He was a professor of English and German at Niagara County Community College for 24 years, retiring in 1993 as a professor emeritus.

He was fluent in German and Latin, and also spoke some Spanish, Italian and French.

Mr. Miller received two grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities to study German at Tufts University in Boston, Mass., and rhetoric at the University of California at Davis. He also wrote two books: “Writers and Philosophers: A Sourcebook of Philosophical Influence in Literature,” which he co-authored with Edmund J. Thomas, and “Essays on German, American and English Literature.”

In retirement, he kept up with daily reading and writing, and his love of the arts.

Music was another interest; he told a Buffalo News reporter in a 2008 interview that if there had been a program in music when he attended Niagara University, that would have been his major. A fan of jazz, he had played the harmonica since high school. He also played the saxophone. In his later years, he took up the guitar.

Survivors include his wife of 52 years, the former Roseanne Beningo; three sons, Scott E., Brett E. and Curt E.; a brother, Joseph; and a sister, Suzanne Treichler.